TV Times - 27 September - 3 October 2008

This week's pick is a powerful documentary exposing how paedophiles operate in an institutional setting and how the effect of their abuses live on for decades in the minds and lives of their victims.

Submitted by Lone Wolf on September 27, 2008

Other highlights examine how "free love" can operate in practice and also the political significance of hefty donations recently received by David Cameron's party. Two films of political and community significance also have their terrestrial premieres.

Sunday 28 September - 9 - 11.15pm - Channel 4 - Pan's Labyrinth
Whilst most site users will have seen this Oscar-winning film at least once, its premiere on terrestrial television is still noteworthy. For the few uninitiated, Guillermo del Toro's visionary masterpiece tells the story of ten-year old Ophelia, sent to live with her pregnant mother and violent stepfather, a fascist soldier, in a remote village in Spain just after the Civil War. In order to cope in this alienating landscape, Ophelia co-exists in a fantasy world in which a faun commands her to complete three perilous tasks in order for her to succeed at reclaiming her rightful place as a princess. In Spanish with English subtitles.

Monday 29 September - 8 - 9pm - Channel 4 - Dispatches - Cameron's Money Men
This edition investigates the wealthy donors who have added to the recently-swollen coffers of the Conservative Party. The political significance of this newly-acquired financial input is examined; do David Cameron's claims of "openness and transparency" stand up to scrutiny?

Tuesday 30 September - 10 - 11.05pm - Channel 4 - Dawn Porter: 1/4 - Free Lover
In the first of this series investigating unconventional ways in which women relate sexually and emotionally to men, Dawn Porter examines how the concept of free love is practiced in reality, with a visit to a sexually open commune in Germany.

Pick of the Week :rb:
Tuesday 30 September - 10pm - Midnight - More4 - True Stories: Chosen
This searingly honest, no-frills documentary simply consists of three men talking directly to camera about their abuse by different teachers at the same British prep school in the 1960's. Director Brian Woods was telephoned by one of the men the morning after one of his previous documentaries aired (2003's acclaimed "Dying for Drugs" ) and told "We've got a story we want you to tell". The grooming process carried out by abusive masters and the frequent, sustained, horrific assaults by these highly manipulative and corrupt authority figures chill, but what devastates most is the lasting traumatic effect on the men decades later. The boys bravely maintained silence in order to shield their parents and even when police were eventually involved, justice was near non-existent. Woods says: " I have never met before met such articulate survivors of abuse, who have such insight into what happened to them." He also adds: "This is a classic investigation into how paedophiles operate. " Astonishingly, he made the following discovery: "What is extraordinary is that private schools do not have statutory obligation to report allegations of abuse to either police or social services".

Tuesday 30 September - 1.05 - 04.00am (Wed am) - Channel 4 - Dogville
This terrestrial premiere of Lars von Trier's highly-stylised film stars Nicole Kidman in a role written especially for her. Set in the Depression era, she plays Grace, a mysterious stranger who turns up in a Rocky Mountain backwater village; it transpires that she is on the run from the Mob and in fear for her life and subsequently, out of desperation, places herself at the disposal of the residents in the hope of being afforded their protection. They go on to abuse this vulnerability cruelly. Von Trier specialises in portraying the cruelty inherent in isolated communities who inflict suffering on innocents who dare in any way to challenge their established way of doing things and being, even if this is just to be beautiful, kind or brave, as the attackers are certainly none of these things.

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